The Cracked Door – Daily Haikus
Reflections on life, the world, and society. Come explore with me.
The river rushes into the sea.
When will it ever return?
Why do we too expect
Our money to invest back to us?
Context (if you’re interested):
This is based on a poem by Lia Bai. I was thinking about how the flow of money in society is like a river. It flows in an endless cycle, congregating in certain places and leaving others dry.
Welcome all
We want to serve you better
Bingo extreme
Context (if you’re interested):
This is a compilation of ads I saw driving around Manila. I assembled them together to get a sense of the surreal kind of feel advertisements can have when you stop to think about them.
My contradictions
Shall remain intact, yearning
For everything, beyond
This daily bread I hold
Context (if you’re interested):
This is a revamped version of the my poem from the day before. It expressed what I was going for better.
I’m a monument
Frozen in just one moment,
In your mind at least
Context (if you’re interested):
I was thinking about how our view of people can become static after we stop seeing them.
What day is today?
What does it even matter
To me anymore?
Context (if you’re interested):
What use is time when all of life feels the same after a while?
I live with all my
Contradictions, wanting more,
But enjoying bread
Context (if you’re interested):
It is based on a poem by David Ignatow and my ever-present grounded idealism.
In the world made of
Light and darkness, what really
Stands out is the pink.
Context (if you’re interested):
This poem just popped into my head as I was drifting off to sleep one night.
After all of these years,
It feels like you are still right
Here by my side
Context (if you’re interested):
This is based on the Chinese song, “Night in Ulaanbaatar”, a song about missing one’s love while traveling only to feel their shadow around them.
To a toddler,
Everything is a castle, a knight, or dragon
That they clasp with their hands,
These same hands that now
Type in this keyboard
Context (if you’re interested):
This one is about how our childhood curiosity often transitions into adulthood sense of responsible work. Never loose your creativity. Is what this narrator does on the computer less creative now then playing as a toddler? Work on the computer can be really creative or not. I left it ambiguous to think through what we do with our time as adults and how to foster a sense of play and creativity.
Sitting in the heat
Still sweating though the sun set
Waiting for the start
Context (if you’re interested):
The weather was simmering in August in Central China. Normally, I could look forward to the temperature and humidity dropping once the sunset. That evening, neither would.